Illusion

Disney Illusion Island MSRP $40.00 “Disney Illusion Island is a charming all-ages platformer that acts as a breezy introduction to the Metroidvania genre.” Pros Gorgeous art Approachable gameplay Helpful co-op mechanics Accessibility options Cons Narrative delivery…

Examples of plastic-plus-paper products and plastic-packaged products. Packaging examples from different grocery stores and pharmacies. Each row features four different pairs of products where the left product is packaged in plastic plus paper and the right product is packaged in plastic only. Credit: Journal of Consumer Research (2023). DOI: 10.1093/jcr/ucad008 Many products are wrapped in multiple layers of material,…

Disney Illusion Island is heading exclusively to Nintendo Switch on July 28, but preorders are open now for the exciting (and adorable) new platformer. The side-scroller allows up to four players to explore a colorful, family-friendly island as they try to save the quirky location from a mysterious disaster. As noted in our preview, Disney Illusion Island is a metroidvania that will have you running, jumping, swinging, and solving a variety of puzzles as Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy.If…

Sometimes you know there's just the right word for something, but your brain can't find it. That frustrating feeling is called the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) state—and for decades psychologists assumed it was caused by a partial recollection of the answer. But new research suggests this experience may be largely an illusion. Being sure you know something doesn't mean you actually do. In a series of experiments published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, college students attempted to answer 80 general…

Optical illusions are tricky little things. Often they can leave us scratching our heads, trying to figure out how the illusion is tricking our eyes and our brain. One type of illusion, known as a “simultaneous contrast illusion,” may finally have an explanation, though, according to a new study. See that image at the top of the article? While it might seem like the gray rectangle in the middle is composed of two different colors at first glance, it’s actually just one color, though it appears to be two…

As both a new mom and video game enthusiast, I often find myself thinking about when and how I can introduce my son to certain games and series. Naturally, I reflect a lot on the games I grew up with--the days spent curled up on the couch playing Donkey Kong Country, Mario Kart 64, and Goldeneye with my mom, and the nights hunched over the computer running through Diablo with my dad. Nowadays, however, it feels a bit harder to find a solid split-screen co-op game to play alongside someone with small hands…

Those of us who have played video games from a very young age probably have some weird licensed games that we only owned because someone knew we liked a particular franchise or character. And if you’re like me, many of those were Disney games. These varied wildly in quality, but I look back fondly on decent licensed games like The Incredibles and Finding Nemo as some of my most formative gaming experiences. After going hands-on with Disney Illusion Island, I’m confident it’ll be that game for many kids in the…

The nature of time, a concept fundamental to human life but still ambiguous in scientific parlance, is explored in the first episode of the new podcast series, Great Mysteries of Physics.The first episode of the new podcast, Great Mysteries of Physics, delves into the complex nature of time. Challenging traditional notions of time as absolute, researchers discuss theories suggesting time is relative and intertwined with space, a concept contradicting our subjective experience. The discrepancy could be attributed to…

Image via Marvel Studios Looking completely exhausted from his latest promotions of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Chris Pratt is flat out passed out in a chair, or is he? What the actor does next is enough to blow his own mind, let alone everyone else’s, and fans are trying to figure out how he did it. Pratt has had a phenomenal year with the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie in April and now Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 that recently released in May. Both have performed phenomenally at the box office,…

To transform reality into the mental landscape that occupies out minds, our brain performs a multitude of operations. Some are short-cuts; assumptions that become obvious the moment we attempt to make sense of the conflict presented in an optical illusion.For individuals with autism, those short cuts and mental operations could work a little differently, subtly influencing how the brain constructs a picture of everyday life.With this in mind, scientists have turned to optical illusions to better understand…